Not even three weeks since the election, Capito’s challenge to Democrat Sen. Jay Rockefeller is already shaping up as test case of whether Republicans can overcome deep fissures within the party and produce palatable general-election candidates who aren’t fatally wounded by bruising primary battles.

“We never have been able to guarantee the most electable candidate can win a primary,” acknowledged veteran GOP power broker Charlie Black. “There was all that talk after 2010 when we kicked three seats away and nothing changed.”

Indeed, within an hour of Capito’s campaign kickoff in Charleston, the anti-tax Club for Growth fired the first warning shot.

Fresh off winning a seventh term in the House, Capito was deemed too “establishment” and not conservative enough by the Washington-based group, which most recently assisted in the takedown of Indiana Sen. Dick Lugar.

“Congresswoman Capito has a long record of support of bailouts, pork and bigger government,” Club for Growth President Chris Chocola said in a statement. “She voted to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, for massive expansions of government-run health insurance, giveaways to Big Labor, and repeatedly voted to continue funding for wasteful earmarks like an Exploratorium in San Francisco and an aquarium in South Carolina. That’s not the formula for GOP success in U.S. Senate races.”

The Senate Conservatives Fund, which was founded by South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, also signaled outright opposition.

“Congresswoman Capito is not someone we can endorse because her spending record in the House is too liberal,” said SCF Executive Director Matt Hoskins. “If Republicans in West Virginia want to save their country, they need to find another candidate with the courage to say ‘no’ to more spending and debt.”

Another conservative group, FreedomWorks, cited Capito’s mediocre 61 percent rating in its vote rankings in saying an endorsement would not be “automatic.”

“It’s pretty early to make a decision on something like this, but I’m sure we will check with our members in West Virginia in the months to come to see what they say,” FreedomWorks’ Brendan Steinhauser told POLITICO.

Capito is unquestionably a moderate: She supports abortion rights, has voted to extend unemployment benefits and is in favor of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. In 2008, she ran a television ad that touted her willingness to break from her party by voting against tax breaks for oil companies and twice supporting an override of President George W. Bush’s veto of the SCHIP bill.

Are Count Chocula & the teabaggers actually secret agents working for the Democrats? That seems the likeliest explanation after they've thrown away the last two Senate election cycles by forcing loons and losers on the GOP side.

West Virginia will be a test of whether the tea partiers are capable of learning anything from experience - but based on their track record so far, the odds are against it.

The only way Shelly Capito can get elected as Senator from West Virginia is if Sen. Rockefeller or Sen. Manchin retires. I will say though that she could possibly beat Joe Manchin. She's rich, got lots of political influence, re: Ex Gov Arch A. Moore Jr.. Democrats did like him. So its possible but not probable Mr. Catanese.

She may be too moderate. Someone tell me how she will be any different then your run of the mill liberal? The Tea Party and real Conservatives need to find "Republicans" who actually oppose a liberal agenda.. Not those "Republicans" who always make the compromise and then lean left.

This will be interesting to watch unfold. Will Ms. Capito be beaten down by the right wingers, or has the GOP learned enough humility to understand that they need to become part of the solution instead of being the problem? She is exactly the kind of Republican I would like to vote for, if I ever had the opportunity. The only Republican candidates I ever see these days (in California) are so ideologically "purified" during nomination and primary proceedings that I can't stand to vote for them. Go Capito!

There's the Real World and, somewhere alongside it, there's the Republican Conservative Bubble; and "never the twain shall meet". Reading how Freedomworks, the so-called "Club for Growth" and DeMint's nazis -- the first citizens of the Bubble -- are lining up against Ms. Capito's candidacy inspires me to support it.

The GOP better grow up and face reality. The days of protecting rich people from high taxes, in return for campaign contributions, are over. That policy has gotten us exactly nowhere. Might as well face the fact that the new brown majority in America DEMAND a more socialist, redisributionist government, and they're gonna get it. Because they have babies, and white Americans don't.

Demography is destiny. Our destiny is to be like Europe, high tax, big government, nanny-state nit-picking bureaucrats supervising every aspect of our lives, down to the kind of light bulbs we use in our houses. If we are still allowed to live in single-family houses.

Republicans can try to elect some sane people, like this woman seems to be. Or they can elect Christine O'donnell and watch their numbers in the senate and house shrink even more. And they better find the guts to tell Grover Norquist where to go.

Why Republican splinter groups like Club for Growth and Grover's taxpayer pledge fanatics figure insist on using their misplaced sense of ideological purity to help ensure that the Progressives will control the government just totally mystifies me.

The ironic part about these conservative groups is that when it comes to spending the money they steal, er raise from their supporters, they are far from conservative. Just look at how Romney and Rove used their funds. The top people in the Romney campaign were paid $134 million in this election. The top consultants in the Obama campaign were paid $6 million. These groups like Crossroads and Club for growth are out to ensure they stay in business, even if it means ruining America in the process.

“Congresswoman Capito has a long record of support of bailouts, pork, and bigger government,” Club for Growth president Chris Chocola said in a statement. “She voted to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, for massive expansions of government-run health insurance, giveaways to big labor, and repeatedly voted to continue funding for wasteful earmarks like an Exploratorium in San Francisco and an Aquarium in South Carolina. That’s not the formula for GOP success in U.S. Senate races.”

(Laughter........)

Fire up the Tea Baggers and get another Christine O'Donnell, Sharron Angle or Todd Akin. The wacker the better. Have the Koch Brothers drop tens of millions for some WingNut to run in the Primary against Congresswoman Capito and kick her ass.

That's generally been the modus operandi of the Tea Baggers and look how far it's taken them.

Let me make a wildass prediction, Senator Rockerfeller wins in a landslide against a WingNUT and by a safe margin again Congresswoman Capito.

Congresswoman, do what still Congressman, and not Vice President, Paul Ryan did, don't quit your "real" job. Just let a WingNUT lose it for you.

you really can't make this stuff up! more proof there are no adults in charge within the GOP household or the inmates are running the show- take your pick. it took little more than 72 hours for speaker boehner to flip flop from 'ACA is the law of the land' back to the repeal mantra of the far right... i'm sure that's a battle boehner was just itching to have a do over on- NOT!

Not even three weeks since the election, Capito’s challenge to Democrat Sen. Jay Rockefeller is already shaping up as test case of whether Republicans can overcome deep fissures within the party and produce palatable general-election candidates who aren’t fatally wounded by bruising primary battles. Yep, if we can call her Santa Capito she has a chance. WE need to give away more - reduce the costs of business by eliminating them - increase the cost of energy by developing lots of subsidized energy and WE must increase the of government to make everyone happy! If Greece thinks it is a better waster and spender than Obama - Move over - here comes Barackaclaus!